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Congratulations to Belle Vue in winning the Play Off Final. The atmosphere on the night was electric, and credit has to be given to the Aces supporters who turned out in numbers. Its a pity the camera's did not capture the atmosphere, as I can tell you the atmosphere was there. The Aces supporters celebrated Polish style with smoke bombs and flares, which I did not mind apart from the smell, which smelt like dog rubbish. The referee decisions were in my opinion mostly correct after looking at the replays on the phone. I think Belle Vue came into the meeting to simply defend the 12 point lead and frustrate the Tigers, and we were chasing the in the meeting all night. But cannot fault our riders who put in 100% effort, but the Aces were just to good for us over the two legged final, and the signing of Robert Lambert as I suspected swung the advantage to Belle Vue. We now move onto the League Cup Final as consolation winning silverware against Kings Lynn so we are still in with a chance of winning something. Finally for me the Play Off's should stay, the tension and excitement that they create means they should stay.

One of the nicest guys in speedway, has been severely unfortunate in his career, always seems to get bad injuries. With a family to think of, I think it’s the right call. All the best Sarj

Maybe make this into a knockout round robin... first leg at Glasgow, they can throw it get knocked out, the 2nd leg at Leicester, vs Poole, we get knocked out and then Poole can ride their home leg against nobody gloriously winning the trophy in front of a packed Wimborne Road, waving their phones about to Sweet Caroline being played over the PA

Which is far better than the so called premiership

From a very reliable source who I will not reveal I will be amazed if complin signs for any southern team as the travelling from North Yorkshire is just to far and costly.

Maybe THREE trophies could be given out...? The team that "wins the league" BEFORE the play offs gets one... The team that actually "wins the league" in the play offs obviously will get one.. And the team that "wins the league" AFTER the league has already been won (twice), gets one... Would make a great end to the season and mean potentially 50% of all the teams can become "Champions".. A 'Win/Win' if you like... Or a 'Win/Win/Win' in UK Speedways case. They could even run a special 3 way "Ultimate Champions" play off before November with a leg of the final held at each track... I am sure there wouldnt be an issue fitting the dates in as one team will obviously pull out, like seems to happen in 3 way finals....

Post of the year. Incredible sportsmanship, and I know how much it hurts, but to lose and be this gracious will make it all the better when you eventually win the top flight title, which you will. Huge respect.

The only way we can see if Belle vue could beat Sheffield without Lambert in the side is to go back to the 4 league matches we have ridden against each other this season. Home and away first meetings Belle vue on agg won 94 to 86 .On the second meetings Sheffield won 93 to 87. Thats one each add all the scores together to get a winner and the score is 181 to 179 in favour of belle vue another just 2 point win so we kinda beat you three times on aggregate.

Will that be r/r at 1 or guest

Can anyone provide a single example in the history of speedway when a race non-finisher was awarded three points for a race win, ahead of two other riders who had legitimately finished the race?

Someone has started on the alcopops early.

I'd like to see the Cook brothers at Leicester, they'd be wasting their time, treading water down in the CL... maybe offer them a contact before the CL pay offs this coming Friday? Some exchange deal with Joe Thompson & Max Clegg maybe?

Except you ard ignoring the rulebook that clearly states the result of a race can not be changed once declared. And secondly these are simply decisions where you disagree with that of the referee.

Maybe paying for three meetings from one home leg is the issue? Especially for Glasgow as not many Poole or Leicester fans will be in attendance I would think.. Especially given the way the competition has been devalued by the way it has been allowed to drift on without the clear priority and focus any "Final" of a competition should have been given..

Oh yeah... forgot, you guys are still down in the CL

I thought the heat 3 decision was wrong and should have been all 4 back but on reflection over the two meetings Sheffield didn't lose because of the referee, Holder and Howarth were to blame, Howarth was particularly poor at Sheffield and Holder seems to not be too clever at times and was outsmarted by Kurtz, you can't expect Kurtz not to fight for his position just because you are friends, it seemed obvious what Kurtz was going to do and Holder should have seen it coming.

Danny king has been doing it since April!

IF the final(s) are abandoned will Glasgow, Leicester and Poole be fined for not completing their fixtures? Nothing would surprise me in British Speedway any more. This has been another season of embarrassment with a team running 99% without their signed No1, another signing a British Champion knowing he wouldn't be there for long, a team dropping out, a team signing a GP rider for 3 meeting in the quest for silverware and who know what other own goals?

Mikebv has put his finger on it there! As a died-in-the-wool Tigers fan for 56 years, I'm actually glad to see Belle Vue win the title, for the simple reason that it highlights the sheer hypocrisy and corruption of the ruling authorities in allowing a rider who has shunned British racing for three years in pursuit of personal treasure to suddenly turn up for three matches in the colours of a team for which he has no past or present connection and have the audacity to collect a champion's medal on the rostrum. A "ringer" by any definition. Surely the authorities will now be shamed into ensuring no such aberration will ever occur in the future. As for the real championship, whichever team wins the Sheffield v Ipswich tie two weeks' time can hold its heads high and rightly claim to be the season's champions - an accolade won over the course of twenty matches home and away and without recourse to underhand and devious chicanery, the stench of which will always hang around this alleged Belle Vue "victory".

Berwick have done a lot of good work putting in a pathway from Duns to NJL to National League to Championship then hopefully onwards for riders. It's slowly starting to bear fruit now. They deserve a lot of credit for it.

Birmingham?? Try Ellesmere Port!

Still makes a total mockery of this circus,,,, a meeting that potentially could change who finishes top thus changing who faces who in the play offs,,, after the play offs. Absolute joke

Yes it is riot night actually, you cheeky so and so. A favourite song of the rioters is ‘ The Wheels From Bus Cannot Be Found’ (you know the tune) so those travelling by coach need to have a plan ‘B’ for getting home.

Why do Poole think they are the only ones to pay the riders on time, because they are absolutely not.

If he scores more than King and Worrall he'll earn more and get it on time too.

Vague memories of my first meeting back in 1973 against Belle Vue with both Collins and Morton. Being a bit young, a friend and I died many times rolling down mostly bend 1 after being hit by shale. Swindon were something like this.. Ashby, Hitch, Hunter, Keen, Stangeland, Handley and Leonard. Brian Leanord had magnificent white leathers, but rarely scored a point from memory. Phoned Martin Ashby as a 15 year old and he chatted with me for about half an hour, tried the same a fortnight or so later and he put the phone down on me, can’t blame him really. I loved watching ‘Battling’ Geoff Bouchard, disappointing to see how he was treated. Saw Jan Andersen when his first race from reserve . Rolf Gramstad was one of my all time favourites and I met him near the Paperback Parade shop, long since gone, but opposite Swindon’s main library today. Steen Mastrup was steady too.. We used to stand on the back straight, opposite the start line, it was more expensive to go the other side at the time. They did lovely Cheese & Onions rolls in the back straight stand then. Saw the tests against the USA and Russia too, I remember Kevin Pope scoring a fair few from reserve against the latter. Thought the support for the USA was from their English clubs supporters, sadly.. Too many riders and good nights out to mention, it’s so sad to see it’s finally gone... Back straight bogs excluded..

Just watched all 15 heats, just the races…none of the in between stuff, on Discovery+ and I thought this 2nd leg was more exciting, by a short head, than the first leg. A really good meeting, well done to both teams. Usually good meetings between BV and Sheffield, even back in the 60’s and 70’s.

So Craig Cook banned from riding in the individual at Edinburgh tonight

I am afraid it’s commonplace amongst speedway clubs in general, the communication is generally poor to its supporters.

I know, pretty good eh... perhaps i should take over northern team management duties from Havvy? I can speak English and everything!

Not with those two teams... I would have hoped they'd both lose....

Wow, you've got it bad mate, it's over, done with, enjoy it for what it was, a great final on 2 of the fastest tracks you could wish for in this country, yes the gate 3 fiasco was a joke but we still got plenty of good racing and the outcome was in the balance until the later stages. For me, it's been mentioned by others too, the reason you lost was, in the main, down to your golden boy Jack Holder not getting into the groove when it really counted, also to an extent Kyle Howarth, he can never be accused of not giving his all but on Thursday he just didn't click, maybe too tense. Just wondering, what with your name and all that, is this bitterness stemming from the fact you had your bend invaded on Thursday? Must've been awful, all that noise and jubilation.

Myself and Arthur do not agree on much but we do on this subject far prefer to be where are. Than in the top league.

Lets hope so. Us fans deserve some silverware. It might not mean a lot to some, but it's a biggie for the Stars

If the Sheffield round doesn't get run then those that ordered the £49 pairs package for the streaming will need a refund as the price was based on 6 meetings

Yes and he looked to make sure he was far enough in front.

And Danyon

Maybe Tungate could come back in as an injury replacement for Danny King who is nursing at least one broken finger on his clutch hand and let Danny concentrate on winning more trophies with Poole?

As a neutral I found it entertaining but if I’d have been a fan of either team I’d have been annoyed with some of the decisions over the 2 meetings. The inclusion of Lambert is another debate and for me personally it should have been somebody who’d ridden here all season or at least bothered with the British final , not turning up on these shores once your meetings have dried up and it suits but like I say that’s just my personal take on that one. Speedway in general seems hell bent on excluding riders, some racing incidents don’t always warrant an exclusion yet somebody has to be excluded? As paying public we want to see hard racing and fair racing, in these circumstances it would be great to see an option where the ref could put all 4 back In but it will never happen and we’d probably have about 7 re-runs per meeting and with curfew times it would be a nightmare but it really does annoy me when a great race stopped by a rut that’s fired a rider off the bike or close racing and somebody comes off. Sometimes exclusions are as clear as day but for a referee to have no option to put all 4 back in is one thing I’d certainly like to see changed, I mean where does the first bend bunching rule actually end?

Regardless of the politics of it all and when it should have been held the riders have lost out on 3 pay packets and that’s not fair, but I must admit cook not turning up at Plymouth on Tuesday stinks.

The Poole v Leicester meeting on the 26th should guarantee a very big crowd if Pirates win the Playoff Final.

But an accurate conversion rate to reflect real life would be: Champ average = (1.054 x Prem av) + 1.75 [Linear regression*] * I tried r squared and logarithmic correlations but neither gave a significantly better fit.

Legend

When all the dust has settled, and the trophies were handed out, at the end of the day Sheffield had their chance and they blew it. Plain and simple. Do not try to blame the ref. She was the one making the decisions, and she called it as she saw it. Deal with it, and accept defeat with grace and dignity.

Max Fricke scored 9 and 10 on his two visits to Sheffield this season, and Robert Lambert got 10. Hardly game-changing. Yes, he got a max at Belle Vue, but if I were a Sheffield fan I'd be looking at your own riders' performances as opposed to looking for excuses. Jack Holder only scoring 2? That's where you lost it.

Flappy...

Absolutely. I don't understand why clubs wouldn't want to run every week right through the summer holidays, my own club is one of the worst and its bizarre. Have the Play Offs in August if need be and run the cups in Sept and Oct. Get the league title decided when kids aren't at school and the weather is good.

The biggest thrill of speedway is a dam good close race with a few good passes to get the blood pumping we love it.Its why we go to the speedway its why people come back time and again its why a newby will come back again. So, what do a lot of promoters do cut corners on the most important thing in speedway the track. They buy crap cheaper shale some don't seem to maintain the track as well as they should and then the racing suffers, and they then wonder why the crowds are down. It's sad to see a once thriving sport keep shooting itself in the foot.

As a family we chose not to let Luke get an average and certainly wouldn't of been swayed by any club dictating about the volume of meetings he would or wouldn't compete in . Our decisions are based on his development